What’s going on so far?
So, in case you haven’t been following the drama with Twitter, there’s a lot to throw at you. First off, Elon Musk just closed a deal to actually buy Twitter which is a story all its own. Shortly after buying 9.2% of the company, Musk got an offer to sit on the board of directors. He rejected the position and moved on to purchase the whole company. Amid all of this drama, Musk posted a poll on Twitter asking if people wanted to be able to edit tweets, and the response was overwhelmingly in favor of it. Soon after, the company announced that it had been working on this feature since last year. As it stands, it’s still in testing and it will first launch as a Twitter Blue exclusive.
A first look at edited tweets
Now, one issue that Twitter had with editing tweets was giving people the ability to change whatever wrong or hurtful things they say on the internet. If you type it, you can’t change it. This makes sense; sure, changing a typo isn’t the end of the world, but if you post a five-tweet thread airing all of your misogynistic laundry, then you shouldn’t be able to change it. On the other hand, the company is looking to hold people accountable for their tweets. Thanks to Wong, we know what that looks like. She gave the world a first look at edited tweets and how they function. This will remind you of YouTube comment sections, actually. When you edit a tweet, you’ll see a small “Edited” button on the bottom. Tapping/clicking that button will show you what the original tweet was. Not only that, but if you have the link to the old tweet, you’ll see a button under it reading “There’s a new version of this tweet”. Tapping/clicking it will bring you to the edited version. This means that when you edit a tweet, you’re not technically editing the original, you’re recreating that same tweet with a new link. We’re not sure just when this feature will launch for Twitter Blue, but it shouldn’t be too much longer.
